Never a one woman show - more like a collaboration.
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| Supportive family |
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| Sentinel News |
A BIG Thank your to everyone involved.
To the co-exhibitors who were a joy to work alongside. To Bethany at the Regional Art Gallery, The Condensary who was always helpful, stress-less and a pleasure to deal with. To my Daughter, Brianna who gave a rip roaring concise opening speech and to her Boyfriend, Xavier for his support. To my Son, Arron who helped us with all the heavy work and organized and collated sales . . . and of course to my ever dependable and patient main men: my Husband, Cameron and my Father, Brian who helped with framing, hanging and all the hundred and one odd jobs involved in preparing for a exhibition to make it look professional and seamless.
Also a thank you to the Somerset Mayor, Graemme Lehmann for attending and opening the exhibition.
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| setting up exhibition |
Opening speech by Ms
Brianna Lee
Hi everyone, my name is
Bri and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to the exhibition this
afternoon. I’m a Brisbane-based author, the Founding Editor of a
quarterly periodical about women + work, and I often write about art,
books, and culture, for The Guardian, VAULT
Art Magazine, and elsewhere. But this
afternoon I am probably most qualified to speak about The Crossdale
Four because of my position as a very proud daughter of Sharon Lee,
one of the artists exhibiting.
Before I begin welcoming
you to this exhibition, which is so much about place, I would like to
acknowledge that we are gathering on what always was and always will
be Aboriginal land. There is no place in Australia you can walk, that
footsteps were not tread for thousands of years before you. I have
read that the name Toogoolawah is derived from the Aboriginal words
"dhoo" (a generic term for tree) and "goo/lawa",
meaning "crescent shaped" or "bent like a crescent
moon". Prior to European settlement the Esk area had been
occupied by people from the Waka Waka Aboriginal language group, and
we are also near the lands of the Jagera and Turrbul peoples. I pay
respect to elders past, present, and emerging.
The condensery is so named
for its previous purpose as a condensed milk factory packing
facility. Fifty years after this area was settled in 1840, this
condensed milk factory was established by the McConnel family, and in
the years following 1889 there was such growth in the neighbouring
township of Toogoolawah, that the Brisbane Valley railway line was
extended in 1904. Nestle purchased this factory in 1906, along with
seven neighbouring farms, and by 1926 it was producing its own
electricity.
Then, just three years
later, in 1929, Nestle moved its condensed milk production to
Victoria and there was a 50% reduction in local employment. In 1951 a
fire destroyed most of this building, leaving nothing but a packing
shed and chimney. The site was purchased by a plumber who then
returned the adjoining lands to pasture. It was only re-imagined and
reopened as an art gallery in 2015.
I mention all of this
because you’re standing on the stained concrete, and under the
rusted roof, of a building that is so
of its surroundings. The growth, and the boom-and-bust, the
flourishing times and then the fire, the process of things laying
dormant, and then being reborn.
Most good art is concerned
with asking questions of meaning and mortality. Of nature and time.
The exhibition you will see today, a gathering of ‘The Crossdale
Four’, is no exception. As with this building being ‘of’ a
time and place, the four artists here – Jan Williams, Jane
Harthoorn-Williams, Sharon Lee, and Ian Clark – have found
themselves thrown together by life. None have exhibited together
previously, but all find themselves currently living on Crossdale
Road, and interestingly, fire brought them together, as they all
volunteered for the local brigade. They have individual styles, not
least because their chosen mediums differ, but they are at different
stages of practice too, and for their work each one has responded to
a different issue or question
they have simmering. I’d be here for at least an hour if were to
list each artist’s qualifications and achievements, so instead I’m
going to introduce a little about each one, and highlight my
impressions of the works individually, and what connects them to each
other, and to this time and place.
Jane Harthoorn-Williams
Jane was born in Uganda,
then lived in Kenya, before her parents emigrated to the UK, and then
finally settled in Australia. Jane describes using her vessels as
canvases, using white porcelain for throwing her pieces, as it
provides a fine, white ground that is responsive to her incising and
carving.
One of her works in
particular, 'Whales and Men', relates to plundering and depletion,
and our effect on the biodiversity of the ocean. Jane says it
illustrates the story of dependence of 19th
Century Industrialisation on whale oil, before the advent of
Petroleum, which led to the near extinction of whales. The piece
concludes with a reference to the Rainbow Warrior, and a golden age
when Dolphins were celebrated, and Whales revered.
When I look at these
vessels I see an amalgamation of so many cultures and references. A
repetitive geometric motif so clearly drawn from East African
beginnings, but then the curls of ocean waves on a traditional vase
shape takes me up through Egypt, across the Mediterranean, and into
Greek mythology with a siren riding a dolphin.
The special extra facet of
vessels and claywork, of course, is that the artist has moulded her
creation from earth. It is literally made of place. The same is true
for Jan Williams’ work.
Jan Williams
Jan was born in New
Zealand and came to Australia after living in Norway for many years.
His pieces in this exhibition are a range of clay ‘fat ladies’
with smooth, refined rolls, and round toes and cheeks.
Jan says he uses the ‘fat
lady’ format as a type of language to depict a variety of concepts,
and I can’t help but think if this idea as something that could
only result from someone who understands the plurality of language
from having experienced so many different places around the world.
When we look past the fact of the art being a human figure the
meanings emerge. The piece ‘Black weather’ shows one his fat
ladies in dark finish, arms and fingers outstretched, hair on-end, an
angered face. Jan worked on this sculpture while considering
hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The other fat ladies—one pale and
serene in a bathtub, one rusting browns, hugging itself, gazing down,
are all representations of occurrences and phenomena in the natural
world. I encourage you to look through the ‘fat lady’
representations and find the language in his works.
Sharon Lee
Sharon Lee lived in Papua
New Guinea for almost two decades before returning to Australia. In
2000 she relocated her practice to the acreage on Crossdale Road, and
with that move she describes a surge in feelings of connection and
responsibility to the land. Her paintings are layered – layer upon
layer upon layer – so that both viewing them and considering their
meaning can take time. This body of work titled ‘The Beauty of
Patterns Lost’ documents the unnecessary, devastating loss of
native fauna Lee has witnessed driving from Brisbane to Crossdale in
the last 17 years. Her paintings have the remarkable ability to be
many things at once. They can be viewed without context as
celebrations of nature and examples of a talented artist bending a
medium to her will. On a closer inspection I find some of them
harbour an unease, or a kind of dissonance, so common in nature. The
viewer can admire the creatures so artfully depicted, but not without
questioning their role in the life of the creature. Can we take the
beauty of this place and these creatures, without responsibility? Do we need to destroy and use so many resources without due-consideration. These are the questions Lee asks.
Ian Clark
The current display of Ian
Clark’s work arose from a wood working course at the Brisbane
Institute of Art, but of course Clarke has taken the medium several
steps further. By combining the sculptural aspect of woodwork with
painting, these pieces actively engage the viewer. They seem to
change as we step around them and see them from different angles,
they seem to change in different lights, and when they are in
different colours. But of course the change is with us, with our eyes
and our perceptions. Some of the depictions are drawn from Clarke’s
knowledge of earth and planetary history, and no doubt for many
viewers the look of them is reminiscient of geography classes and
topographic maps, but he has subverted our expectations in this
regard by playing with the widths of the levels. I look at them and
pause, engaged. Clarke’s work is to be admired for its technical
prowess and painstaking process, but also, simply to be enjoyed.
These four artists have
come together as all humans do – by a combination of intent and
chance. They find each other on the same single stretch of road at a
time of production and growth, rather than fire or latency. As you
travel through this space I encourage you to find the connections
between these works, as it cannot be mere coincidence. They have
created, together, to gift us with an exhibition tonight which asks
questions, and is firmly anchored in place.
They would like for me to
pass on their thanks to family and friends who have helped support
the show coming together tonight, and to Bethany and the staff here
at The Condensery.
On behalf of the four
artists, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to the Crossdale Four’s
first exhibition – hopefully of many – here at the condensery.
Thank you.
It was a joy to share the day with friends from as far afield as Fraser Island, Noosa, Caloundra, Bli Bli, Mr Mee, Towoomba and Brisbane.
We were thrilled with the number of people who did make the effort to join us for the opening and look forward to hearing of the response from those who will attend before it comes down on the 8th April.
10 February - 8 April
Thank you - it was a joy. Open daily Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10am - 4pm.
29 Factory road
Toogoolawah
54231036
https://www.experiencesomerset.com.au/
